Term 4, 2025 Newsletter - week 8

Dear parents,

In the course of a recent Religion lesson, where Year 11 has been learning about the virtue of magnanimity, I asked the students to collaborate with a partner on a list of the 3 most admirable people in human history. The list could not include Our Lord and include only one saint. Of the lists proposed, two of them included a member of the SMMC teaching staff (though not me!).

I have to admit that their feedback was pleasantly unexpected, but nonetheless gratefully taken as a sign of esteem for the Catholic witness and educational impact of these teachers. In another sign of the impact SMMC teachers are making, NAPLAN results were released on Wednesday and it seems that SMMC has done comparatively well.

I don't take phone calls from reporters very often; in fact, they are generally to be avoided. But on Thursday a Sydney Daily Telegraph reporter rang to say that SMMC had topped the NAPLAN tables for all secondary schools in the Riverina and came in at number 50 of the approximately 1000 high schools across NSW. Naturally the reporter wanted to know what the formula for success was. 

SMMC is a pen and paper learning economy, alive to the deleterious cognitive and social effect of screens and the value of making real, rather than virtual, connections. In contrast to the in-vogue "student-centered", enquiry and project-based learning models, SMMC classrooms are teacher-led environments, where the explicit instruction model of "I do, we do, you do" reflects the need for foundational knowledge prior to independent application. Above all, SMMC is a place where the things of God take precedence and render everything else in its correct proportion.

SMMC's overall NAPLAN results also topped the tables among local schools. This is a fitting recognition of the professional practice and Catholic ethos of our teachers, learning support and administrative staff and testimony to the contribution of each member of the team.

As we all know, NAPLAN results are something, but not everything. In 2026, high school teachers will be commencing an intensive, two-year program of professional learning in collaboration with Independent Schools NSW called High Impact Teaching. HIT will help teachers to refine and integrate a range of evidence-based teaching practices. Primary teachers will consolidate the learning of this past year in numeracy and begin a focus on improving student writing. Meanwhile, all staff will undertake training in order to understand more deeply and cater more effectively for neurodiverse students.

Thank you for your support throughout a blessed 2025. It is my hope that every family will enjoy a peaceful and holy Christmastide, and a sense of relief and recuperation from the normal routine over the summer break.

Warm regards,

Ian Smith

Principal

Week 8 Term 4, 2025 Newsletter.pdf

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